Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Are you even making a proposal? Or just asking the cash trucks to form an orderly line in front of the state school black hole?

From the comments to a post at Harry's Place advocating the introduction of vouchers for schools. The post is titled "Why progressives should support school vouchers". That's revealing in itself, containing as it does an acknowledgement of, and appeal to, an orthodoxy: this should be the orthodoxy for progressives, you're a progressive therefore you should agree with it.

The post itself makes some very good points. But the comments carry this sense of orthodoxy on. Some argue on the merits of the proposals, but many just assert things like "we should not let the public education system fail". Why not? Can we make it fail, or stop it from doing so? Maybe it's failing because of intrinsic problems.

All this reveals a herd mentality that is a genuine barrier to progress. And this is most apparent in some of those who call themselves progressives.